


It’s coming back to what we know

by orphan_account



Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-08
Updated: 2013-09-08
Packaged: 2017-12-25 23:59:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/959156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris Rogers is actually quite self aware, he'd have some of his team mates know, he just doesn't see the point in doing anything. Dave Warner has other ideas and Steve Smith is just hilariously drunk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It’s coming back to what we know

Technically speaking the boys of the Australian Cricket Team aren’t meant to be drinking this close to a match, in fact they’re not really meant to be drinking this Ashes Series at all, but both the Captain and Vice Captain have retired for the night so they are. Haddin is in his room Skyping his wife and kids and Clarke off somewhere with his wife who didn’t go out to drinks with the other girls.    

So typical for this tour really.    

Chris is sitting by the bar, keeping an eye on Steve Smith who has probably had more to drink than he should have under any circumstances, let alone when he’s not actually supposed to be drinking. Chris is pretty sure he’s going to be ridiculously hung over in the morning and their captain is not going to be pleased.

    The rest of the team are spread throughout the room as Chris observes them, Ashton and Mitch are giggling like school girls about something in the corner, Ed’s got little Romy balanced on his hip and is deep in conversation with Ryan, and Dave Warner is suddenly standing right in front of his face, startling him out of his observation of his team in their natural environment (away from any senior staff). Chris blinks in surprise a few times as Dave slides onto the stool next to him looking like he has something he really wants to talk about.    

“Evening.” Chris inclines his head, wondering why Dave isn’t off conspiring with Shane which seems to be his most common pass time, besides stirring up controversy and taking selfies.    

“Hey.” Warner says dismissively, before launching into the question he’s clearly come over to ask “Have you seen Watto or Sids around?”    

Chris shakes his head and answers curtly “No.” It’s not something he wants to talk about since he’s 95% sure Shane’s been avoiding him ever since the rest of the squad returned from Sussex a couple of days ago. He doesn’t tell Warner this of course.    

“I thought you two were attached at the hip.” Chris isn’t sure if Dave’s snide attitude towards him is born of genuine dislike or if that’s just the way he is towards everyone unfamiliar.    

Chris barks out a laugh, “Not really no.” He shakes his head “In fact he hasn’t talked to me for days.”    

“Oh.” Dave nods his head knowingly, “It’s like that is it?”    

Chris genuinely has no idea what he’s talking about. Then again David Warner is a mystery in and of itself, there’s probably no one on the planet that understands the way his mind works, “It’s like what?”

    “You know.” Dave shrugs his shoulders but no Chris really doesn’t know, if he did he wouldn’t be asking. Dave sighs in exasperation waving his hand around in one of the vaguest hand gestures Chris has ever seen in his 35 years on this planet.    

“What on earth are you talking about?” Chris questions. He questions a lot of things about his life right now, starting with the sanity of the men he calls team mates.    

“No, it’s like.” David really looks like he’s struggling to find words, which amuses Chris to no end but doesn’t change the fact he’s genuinely confused. “Feelings.”

    Oh. That. Well yeah he thought that was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes so he shrugs and nods “Yeah it’s like that.”

    “That’s it? You admit it?” Dave eyes him curiously, like he expects him to explode or something. “You’re not going to deny it or tell me I’ve been smoking crack or punch me or something? No big gay freak out?”     

Chris is suddenly struck with the feeling maybe it’s a good thing it’s taken him this long to get into the national squad because emotional incompetence seems to be a symptom of prolonged exposure to the Australian Team. “No.” he replies calmly, “Do you want me to?”

    David widens his eyes and shakes his head rather emphatically “Oh God no. Just surprised is all.” Chris nods in response and silence falls for a beat because how is Chris meant to respond to that? Luckily he doesn’t have to because Dave speaks up again, “What are you going to do about it.”    

“Absolutely shit all.” Chris shrugs. He’s been around the block enough times to recognise that feelings come and go and not all of them should be acted on. Judging by the fact Shane has been blatantly avoiding him for the past few days he’s come to realize this is one of those occasions.

   “You know what you should do?” Steve asks, coming out of no where and literally draping himself over the back of Dave’s shoulder, clearly having been listening to their conversation when honestly Chris had forgotten he was even close by. Chris eyes him warily but Dave doesn’t even bat an eyelid, just unwraps his arms and manhandles him onto the stool next to him.    

“What should he do?” Dave asks, humouring the kid. God Steve was still a teenager when Chris had first played for the squad, hell Ashton is still a teenager. He knows he’s old, the papers never shut up about it, but sometimes he remembers just how old he is for this stage in his career.

    “You should recreate that whole Ghost thing.” he nods earnestly, beaming like he’s solved world hunger or single handedly reclaimed The Ashes “It’s one of the most romantic things to ever happen in the ever.”

    Chris is kind of lost by the drunken man’s logic but judging by the look on David’s face he’s no the only one as he asks, “Do you know what he talking about?”    

Chris racks his brain before he gets what he’s talking about but then when he does understand he feels a bit slow.   “The movie.” He tells Dave once the lightbulb finally goes off, “I think he’s talking about the movie.”       

“Yep.” Steve frantically nods his head like he’s glad someone understands him. It’s probably a good thing someone figured out what he’s talking about, otherwise they could have been stuck trying to understand his drunk ramblings all night.    

 Dave just snorts in laughter, “Pretty sure pottery isn’t really Watto’s thing.” It’s not really Chris’ thing either but if he voiced the thought it’d probably be ignored so he doesn’t even bother. Instead he picks up the beer he’d barely touched all night, deciding maybe alcohol would make sense of whatever was going on here.     

“Not with pottery!” Steve exclaims impatiently, making a noise that shows how stupid he clearly thinks David and Chris are, which is only slightly hypocritical, “With batting!”      

Chris had chosen the wrong moment to take a drink because he promptly spits it up at Smith’s words.   Warner however, the little shit, keeps indulging him, “Oh yeah?” He asks, clearly suppressing a laugh, “How exactly would that work?”

    “Well Chris could be all ‘let me help you not get out lbw” Steve raises the pitch of his voice in what Chris assumes is meant to be a mockery of his own “Then you can like stand behind him and sensually slide your hands down the bat onto his hands.”

      Down the bat onto his hands. Chris isn’t even sure how that’s physically possible. Steve should probably stop drinking now if he doesn’t want to permanently impair his brain functions, if it’s not already to late already.      

Dave must have the same though because he reaches over to grab Steve’s drink out of arms reach “Alright mate, I think you’ve had enough.” He says kindly but firmly.      

“Just think of how sexy it’d be.” Steve looks lost in his fantasy (which is all kinds of disturbing) appearing to not even notice that his drink is gone, “sensual touching and sexy music.”      

“If you start singing unchained melody I swear to God I will tell Clarke that you got shitfaced and laugh in your face at the repercussions.” David jokes, probably trying to end the inherent creepiness that’s going on right now. Chris thinks it’s a threat he’d probably go through with.      

So of course the little shit decides to start humming the Dirty Dancing theme song, smug smile on his face. Dave actually looks like he wants to slap the kid, Chris really hopes he doesn’t actually react though because he’s had enough drama for a lifetime already. 

   "Wrong movie." Chris points out mildly, though perhaps he shouldn’t be admitting he knows these things. "

    Steve sticks his lower lip out petulantly “That’s what you think,” before resuming the humming.      

Dave looks even more frustrated now, however to his credit he keeps and snide comments to himself and instead waves Ryan over from where he looks like he’s heading up to his room for the night.

      “Yeah, what’s up?” The fast bowler asks curiously as he ambles over.      

“You turning in?” Dave asks, as Steve sways on the chair, two sets of hands reaching out with reflexes only sportsmen posses to steady him.      

“I was planning on it.” Ryan confirms with a nod. He always seemed to be getting more sleep than most, probably because his body seems to break down every other week. He appears to take it with good humour though from the few conversations Chris has had with him, “Why?”      

“Think you could take this one up?” Dave gestures to Steve like he’s a misbehaving child. The comparison is really quite apt.    

“And tuck him in. Read him a bed time story” Chris quips, startling a laugh out of the other two men. Steve doesn’t even react, too lost in his disturbing fantasies.

     “I suppose I could do that.” Ryan agrees as he’s already moving towards Steve to haul him up off the chair, “Leave you two to your gossip.”      

“Thanks dear!” Dave calls after Ryan’s retreating back, the only response he gets is the bird.

      Dave’s still cackling when he returns his attention to Chris, but quickly turns serious. The only time Dave ever seems totally serious is during games so Chris will admit he’s slightly nervous.

  “So like what are you going to do about these feelings?” he asks in a way that implies air quotations, like feelings are below him, but he also sounds strangely sincere. Chris honestly wonders why he seems to care so much.    

“Absolutely nothing.” Chris answers immediately, hoping to shut down whatever plans Dave has running around in his head. He hasn’t been a member of this team for long but one thing he does know is Dave Warner plans are always ill conceived and should never be listened to let alone followed.    

“Come on.” Dave is practically whining now; Chris would really like to know why he’s so invested in this thing.    

“Somehow I think locking us in a broom closet, or whatever it is you’re planning on doing, would be useless.” Chris keeps his voice calm and level even though he’s getting slightly frustrated at the other man’s persistence, “so I’ll pass thanks.”    

“My ideas are slightly more original than that.” Dave looks offended at the accusation.  

“Alright then, what are they?” Chris asks, unable to believe he’s actually indulging this absolute lunacy when he should really be heading up to bed.

  Dave looks floored that Chris has actually asked and promptly flounders for words, “They’re still under construction.” he finally says after a long pause.    

“Exactly.” Chris rolls his eyes, spinning around on his bar stool so he’s facing the rest of the room, giving him something else to focus on. Anything else really.    

“We have time to come up with a fool proof plan later.” Dave insists, swinging round on his own chair slightly more dramatically than Chris himself.  
    
“There’s going to be no fool proof plan,” Chris interjects, shaking his head and watching the room. Mitchell currently has a martini glass on his head; Chris isn’t sure what’s going on there, “Because I’m not getting involved.” Anymore than he already has at least.

    “But Shane clearly has feelings as well.” Dave insists unwilling to let this go and clearly unable to take a hint. Chris supposes he’s also to blame for indulging him though.     

“I’m well aware of that.” Chris takes another sip of his beer now there’s no Smith around to make him choke. Honestly does everyone on this team assume everyone else is emotionally unaware? Chris is perfectly self aware thank you very much.    

“Clearly he just needs to realize them.” Dave continues triumphantly completely ignoring Chris, something he’s noticed is becoming part of an annoying pattern, Dave talking at him not to him.    

“He would need to pull his head out of his ass first.” Chris comments, perhaps with more bitterness than he means. It’s not a bad thing, just how Shane is, lost in his own world and slightly naive almost. Still it’s not very useful when Shane can’t see things in front of his own eyes. Then again it could be a blessing in disguise. Chris isn’t quite sure what he feels about this anymore.    

“We just need to help him along.” Dave insists, the conversation now stalling, stuck going round in circles.

    “Okay listen to me. We are not doing anything to Shane.” Chris sighs, rubbing at his eyes because they’re getting itchy, a clear sign of a developing headache.    “

Why not?” Dave asks. Chris is pretty sure he’s answered this question in a couple of different ways already but has officially given up trying for the night (hopefully forever).    

“I think that’s my cue to retire for the night.” Chris says standing up abruptly, hoping to forget this conversation ever happened in the morning (alternately tease Steve about it until the kid is as red as a tomato).    

“Just think.” Dave insists, like a final sales pitch. Hopefully it is a final sales pitch and he’s not followed all the way back to his room, “You guys could be so happy together. Stop bringing the rest of us down.”    

Chris eyes him speculatively for a minute before letting a smile bloom across his face. Instead of answering he says conversationally “You knew exactly what scene Steve was talking about so clearly you’ve seen ghost and you’re a regular old matchmaker, why David Warner I think you’re softer than you seem.”    

The only response he gets is an angry glower following him as he leaves the bar and returns to his room. 


End file.
